With just a few days left for Kraft to up its offer and for other players to make a bid, there has been yet more drama in the long-running hostile takeover bid for the iconic chocolate firm Cadbury.

This week, Cadbury published its latest figures which showed profit margins were up compared to this time last year and with Nestle and Ferrero effectively pulling out of the take-over race, the latest news is that American chocolate giant, Hershey are now said to be interested in the Birmingham-based confectioner.

Professor David Bailey a business expert from Coventry University said: "Kraft effectively bought Nestlé's silence last week by selling them its fast growing North American pizza business in a strategic management move of buying and selling a vast portfolio of brands rather than nurturing a business organically.

"Cadbury will reveal a fuller trading update later this week which will make Kraft's latest offer even more unattractive. Cadbury shareholders might like to reflect on that if and when Kraft comes back with more cash. As I've said all along, Kraft needs Cadbury for growth - Cadbury doesn't need Kraft for anything."

In spite of Hershey's interest it seems that Kraft is still in the running to mount a last-minute solo bid.

Professor Bailey added: "Make no mistake, a Hershey takeover of Cadbury would be a better bet than Cadbury being swallowed up into the slow-growth vast conglomerate that is Kraft, but Cadbury remaining independent is still the best possible outcome for long-term committed shareholders and workers.

"Like Kraft, one wonders how much debt Hershey would have to pile up to mount a takeover to pay-off Cadbury shareholders, debt that would then weigh on the new firm.

"And it's not as is Cadbury needs to change its management. The firm has been performing brilliantly in tough trading conditions - somewhat in contrast to Kraft. Yet it is Kraft which has the offer on the table at this moment, and it is that offer which needs rejecting, in part because it makes little strategic sense anyway and also because of what might happen to jobs in the UK and further afield."

Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson is to meet some of the UK's largest institutional investors to discuss how to protect British companies from unwanted takeover bids. It has been reported that the meeting will use Kraft's hostile takeover bid for Cadbury as a "case study" for the discussions.

Professor Bailey concluded: "Such a direct intervention is actually very welcome and reflects something of a shift in sentiment in Labour but urging a long-term commitment as Lord Mandelson seems to suggest is not enough. Policy should actually facilitate it.

"Essentially, hostile takeovers should be made more difficult - there are plenty of ways to do this and it's simply not good enough for Lord Mandelson to use fine words but then claim he is powerless to act, as he has done recently. This needs to be rectified so that ministers can reclaim the power to act if it is in the public interest.

"It would be far better to change in our institutional system which gave Cadbury and other UK firms stronger protection from unwanted hostile bids (whether from foreign or UK firms) and even if it manages to see off the Kraft bid, Cadbury management will have expended huge amounts of time and energy when they could have been getting on with adding value and building what so far has been a remarkably sustainable and successful business.

"Post credit crunch we need a different framework in which business can operate. Making hostile takeovers more difficult is one place we can start. Things need to change."